Ben Fourie

“And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.” Joel2:28 (NIV)

To be a prophet, to dream dreams and to see visions. What an unbelievable experience it would have been, but in the time of Joel, Judah had disasters in the place of dreams, drought instead of visions.

A natural disaster in the form of a huge swarm of locusts and a big drought had devastated the agricultural economy of Judah. The vines dried up, the grazing was destroyed and the farmers wailed because of the wheat and barley harvest that was lost. Even the hardy olive trees were so aversely affected that no oil could be pressed. The situation was so bad that the religious rituals could no be performed due to the lack of offerings.

Then God called them to repent, to tear their hearts instead of their clothes, to turn back to Him and when they do, the rewards will be much more than the losses they were suffering.

In the time of the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was not absent but His presence was  mostly restricted to people who were called for a specific task, the prophets for instance. In Numbers 11:29 Moses said: “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them.” In Joel this cry of Moses was finally promised for everyone and in the Book of Acts it was fulfilled. Now we can all become prophets, have dreams and see visions.

Jesus promised his followers that they will all receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and when it happened the fledgling church started having dreams and seeing visions about this message going out into the world. They started dreaming about thousands of people coming to Jesus to be saved. They all became prophets with the Word of God on their lips and the power of the Spirit in their hearts.

Do I still have this dream, do my eyes still shine from seeing visions of people coming to Jesus and am I still his prophet wherever I go and in all that I do?

Prayer: Jesus, please help me not to be so encumbered by the many demands of every day that I become spiritually so powerless that I lose my vision for the coming of your kingdom. Amen